A low-risk, as-is SAP migration to Microsoft Azure
Brillio proposed a low-risk lift-and-shift that kept business processes unchanged. Our approach combined SAP and Microsoft Azure expertise with automation-led migration, a firm commitment to the timeline and a single team of SAP, Azure, network and database specialists. It was designed to rely as little as possible on the outgoing provider, which protected the schedule.
The entire SAP estate was migrated to Microsoft Azure as an as-is rehost. That covered many Windows, Linux and SQL Server systems across ECC, supply-chain planning, BW/BPC, BusinessObjects, GRC and more, in the Development, QA, Sandbox and Production environments.
The new platform was built around six elements:
- A secure cloud foundation – a new Azure environment with a dedicated private network connection, Palo Alto firewalls and built-in governance.
- Near-zero disruption – Azure Migrate and database replication moved the systems with only a short cutover window. Versions and server names stayed the same.
- Built-in resilience – disaster recovery in a second Azure region, plus automated backups, monitoring and security tools.
- Smarter operations – our ADAM platform (formerly ai) provides monitoring, service management and cloud cost visibility, while reusable automation templates speed up future changes.
- Right-sized, SAP-certified systems – each system was sized to its real workload using SAP and Microsoft guidelines, and the analytics platform moved to SAP-certified versions on Azure.
- Clear governance – standard naming, tagging and access controls give clear ownership and cost tracking across every environment.
Migrating in waves, with every lesson carried forward
The program began with assessment workshops alongside the client’s SAP, infrastructure and network teams. These mapped the current systems and their dependencies, and shaped a target design that Microsoft reviewed.
Brillio then built the Azure foundation and migrated the environments in planned waves: QA first, then Production, then Development and Sandbox. Lessons from the QA migration were captured and applied to Production, which reduced risk in each later wave. Production went through a full rehearsal and a disaster recovery drill before go-live, and hypercare followed each go-live.
Joint governance meetings ran daily, weekly and bi-weekly. Microsoft contributed design review and investment support, and Palo Alto Networks provided the security layer. The client’s business teams validated each environment before sign-off.
Brillio also committed to building the client’s in-house cloud skills, handing over runbooks and templates so its IT team could run the new platform confidently.
